Eni nearly back to normal in Libya

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ROME, Feb. 16 (UPI) -- Libyan oil and natural gas exports through the Greenstream pipeline should return to normal during the second half of the year, Italian energy company Eni said.

Much of Libya's energy sector shut down last year when NATO forces imposed a no-fly zone to respond to Moammar Gadhafi's crackdown on an uprising against his regime. Italy received nearly 10 percent of its natural gas from Greenstream before the Libyan war began in February 2011.

Eni said it was ramping up efforts to return oil and natural gas exports through Greenstream to pre-war levels of 280,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day by the second half of 2012, the Oil & Gas Journal reports.

Much of Eni's operations in Libya had resumed by the latter half of 2011 after anti-Gadhafi forces captured Tripoli and installed an interim administration.

The company generated 13 percent of its revenue from Libya before the war. Eni was one of the first companies to return to Libya and the Italian government was one of the first to back the transitional council as the Libyan leadership.

The International Energy Agency has said the Libyan energy sector was on pace to rebound faster than expected.